Equatorial Guinea continues to lead the
development of natural gas production and monetization in the Gulf of Guinea,
with the award of a new contract for a new Gas Master Plan to support the
ongoing development of its offshore Gas Mega Hub.
In collaboration with Marathon Oil Corp and EG
LNG, the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons (MMH) awarded a contract for the
development of a Gas Master Plan to British company Gas Strategies on Tuesday.
The work is part of the development of Equatorial Guinea’s Gas Mega Hub, for
which Definitive Agreements towards the monetization of the Alen unit were
signed in April 2019.
The offshore gas mega hub will be the first such
venture offshore Africa and aims at pooling stranded gas across the Gulf of
Guinea by maximizing existing infrastructure at Punta Europa. While key
facilities there, such as EG LNG and Marathon’s methanol plant, have
traditionally been relying on gas feedstock from the Alba Field, declining
output requires to gather gas from additional fields and reserves in the
region.
“Equatorial Guinea has given natural gas a
priority in terms of development and monetization, and we believe gas is the
key to industrialization and jobs creation,” Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima, Minister of Mines
and Hydrocarbons declared. “With key initiatives such as LNG2Africa, the
ongoing offshore Gas Mega Hub and the Year of Investment 2020, we are going to
complete key gas projects in upstream, midstream and downstream that will
further diversify our economy, provide opportunities for our local companies,
and create jobs for our citizens,” he added.
Under the development, Punta Europa is set to
become a gas processing center for all stranded gas fields in the Gulf of
Guinea, and could open up economical avenues to monetize offshore gas in
Cameroon and Nigeria as well.
The new Gas Master Plan represents an important
step towards the realization of this vision, and will help in accelerating and
coordinating offshore gas developments, which could eventually lead to the
construction of additional liquefaction capacity on Punta Europa.
